Punjabi University’s liabilities piled up even as state grant doubled in five years

The grant has gone up from ₹76.7 crore in 2014-15 to ₹152.97 crore in 2019-20

Even as the annual grant being provided to Punjabi University by the state government has doubled in the past five years, the funds are still not enough to clear the varsity’s liabilities of over ₹200 crore.

The grant has gone up from ₹76.7 crore in 2014-15 to ₹152.97 crore in 2019-20. In the ongoing fiscal, the varsity is expecting funds worth ₹108 crore, while the government has already provided ₹20 crore as a special grant for it to clear its committed expenditure.

However, the university’s expenditure in 2020-21 is pegged at ₹676 crore, against an expected income of ₹380 crore, leaving ₹296-crore deficit. The university also has an overdraft of ₹140 crore, which is expected to touch ₹150 crore by the end of the year.

The extent of financial mismanagement can be gauged from the fact that the varsity is finding it hard to arrange funds for paying salaries and pensions for November. In October, former vice-chancellor Prof BS Ghuman had approached the state government for a bailout package of ₹300 crore.

Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal said the issue has been discussed at the secretary level, and the higher education department has been asked to submit a detailed report on how such a situation arose.

“The varsity liabilities are more than the annual budget of the higher education department. The government cannot afford to clear liabilities, as it is required to see how and why the varsity landed in such a financial mess,” the minister said, adding that despite lesser annual grant, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, was doing fine.

“As far as Punjabi University is concerned, besides annual grant, we have provided special bailout packages to meet expenditure every year. The government cannot provide such packages every year,” he said.

Meanwhile, newly appointed V-C Ravneet Kaur said “serious talks” are on with senior officials of finance and higher education departments.

“A special financial plan is also in the works to be presented before the state government to seek immediate funds,” she said, adding that meetings are being held to identify reasons behind the financial crunch. “The state government will be briefed about it,” she said.